Bido.com closing

[hawkeye]

Just saw a tweet on Twitter that BIDO is closing on May 5th. Sorry to hear. Best of luck to Sahar et al.

 

[wwwweb]

Wonder if latonas put the pressure on them, they have been selling alot of domains in an auction sort of format every single day a new lot of auctions... I see alot of sellers not to many buyers?

 

[snoop]

They gave this a red hot go but I doubt the economics of it were anywhere near close to working. The seemed to be selling maybe $5000-$7000 worth of names a week? (just roughly). So with an 8% commission I think it would barely pay for one member of staff let alone many. The selling prices were just too low to run it as is. I think a sales site need to have higher quality names aswell (easier said than done) or some element of enduser sales.

 

[Erdy]

If the sellers and buyers are both domainers it looks very difficult to run a successful auction site. Namejet, snapnames and godaddy are successful as auction sites but they mainly sell expiring domains to domainers. Sedo is successful but they do a lot of end user sales. So for bido to be successful, there were a few things they could have done:

They could make a deal with smaller registrars and auction their expiring domains.

They could sell to end users. To do this you need many additional features. For instance you need fixed price domains that can be bought immediately. To make this work you also need to run a parking service like sedo. Otherwise no matter what you try, it won't work. The end users open the domain directly and they want to click a button and buy the domain on the spot. You would also need to provide things like multi language support because not all end users speak English and there are a lot of non-English domains to sell.

If Bido could provide a better parking service than sedo, a faster transaction than sedo (which they already do), a more covering multi-language support than sedo, they could have succeed.

For instance sedo doesn't categorise domains according language, which is a big problem if you are only interested in domains in a particular language.

So I would say, fixed price sales, domain parking, multi language website, expiring domains from smaller partner registrars, domains categorised according language would be the way to go. It's a shame they decided to close down.

 

[Vito]

If the sellers and buyers are both domainers it looks very difficult to run a successful auction site.

Namejet, snapnames and godaddy are successful as an auction sites but they mainly sell expiring domains to domainers. Sedo is successful but they mainly sell to end users.

So for bido to be successful, there are two ways to go:

a. Make a deal with smaller registrars and auction their expiring domains.

b. Sell to end users. To do this you need many additional features. For instance you need fixed price domains that can be bought immediately. To make this work you also need to run a parking service like sedo. Otherwise no matter what you try, it not going to work.

The end users open the domain directly and they want to click a button and buy the domain on the spot. You would also need to provide things like multi language support because there are many end users who don't speak English and there are a lot of non-English domains to sell.

If Bido could provide a better parking service than sedo, a faster transaction than sedo (which they already do), a more covering multi-language support than sedo. They would succeed.

For instance sedo doesn't categorise domains according language, which is a big problem if you are only interested in domains in a particular language.

So I would say, fixed price sales, domain parking, multi language website, expiring domains from smaller partner registrars, domains categorised according language would be the way to go. It's a shame they decided to close down.

Your ideas for a successful auction house are nothing short of Brilliant.
BUT, all of those ideas take time and money which (I'm speculating here) is not online with their current situation...No Money =firing everyone, and that means less people working there, so a lot less Time.

Bido's daily/weekly changes were out of this World! I commend them for reaching for the sky! Think about it, Voting for profits...Amazing Idea, software, etc., Their Bido Quote Program, The Voting Power idea, All truly incredible, and much bigger than any auction house has ever thought of, but seriously how much time and money (people) did it take to make those programs work? I bet hundreds of thousands of $$$.

So, ya go back to the basics, Sell Domains, and make money. Charge up-front somehow, some way...as you make money from the simplicity of being a reputable domain auction house (which they have established that already), then you slowly re-invest and add one program at a time.

I actually wouldn't mind the job of auction pruner for a month where I can hit delete on any auctions of obvious trademarks and domains with zero end user potential along with a small end user advertising budget. Would be curious to see if a month of pruning for quality helps. Would probably dump the vote for profits and bido quotes as good inventory sells itself without needing to describe it. I think the affiliate program is useful though as sellers linking to their auctions is targeted publicity.

Great idea.
This would draw serious buyers and sellers in itself.


.

 

[jamaltq]

It is bad news, I have made a good profit there in the last 2 months, any way I am trying now epik.com and they are good too.

 

[Erdy]

What is sad is the fact that there are smart and creative people behind Bido and I really wanted to see them succeed. Their website is user friendly and cool.

It certainly cost a lot of money adding unique features to your website but it takes more than that. Usually there are people behind the scenes who are obsessed with minor details and looking at the nice ajax features on the site I can see all the hard work that went into creating them. I agree that some of them, things like vote for profit, were not needed.

A few weeks ago we exchanged some emails with Jarred about some technical things. To me he seemed like a smart and hardworking person who is dedicated to this project. I'm sure it is a very sad time for them as well.

Bido was a strong candidate to be a smaller but much better version of sedo. I wish this story didn't end like that.

 

[Vito]

I wish this story didn't end like that.

The story should end like this...

Auction House on Auction at Auction House!

Jarred and Co-owners choose an auction house to sell their Auction House.

Bido.com on auction at Sedo

Bido.com on auction at EBay.

or how about this...
after all of the Press they will have today, tommorow, and the coming weeks ahead, you have a Press conference, and hit every Blog/Forum/News Site and you promote Bido re-opening for just one more day.
for 1 sale only...

Bido.com on aution at Bido.com!

then you and I, and a few others buy it, hire Jarred, and Garret back, and take down Sedo first, then eBay!

Opportunities are endless...


Damn, now I have to change al of my NameServers on hundreds of domains...:lol:


.

 

[snoop]

The story should end like this...

Auction House on Auction at Auction House!

Jarred and Co-owners choose an auction house to sell their Auction House.

Bido.com on aution at Sedo

Bido.com on aution at EBay.

or how about this...
after all of the Press they will have today, tommorow, and the coming weeks ahead, you have a Press conference, and hit every Blog/Forum/News Site and you promote Bido re-opening for just one more day.
for 1 sale only...

Bido.com on aution at Bido.com!

then you and I, and a few others buy it, hire Jarred, and Garret back, and take down Sedo first, then eBay!

Opportunities are endless...


Damn, now I have to change al of my NameServers on hundreds of domains...:lol:


.

They might as well sell of the name (or the whole site), maybe they will.

 

[Vito]

They might as well sell of the name (or the whole site), maybe they will.

Both name and network dont just compliment each other, they are a must to keep together.

Each on their own are definitely valuable but seriously,
The entire package together, their domain name, Hosting Service, Software, etc. are priceless.


.

 

[fm1234]

According to Sahar's blog the site is for sale.


Frank

 

[snoop]

Both name and network dont just compliment each other, they are a must to keep together.

Each on their own are definitely valuable but seriously,
The entire package together, their domain name, Hosting Service, Software, etc. are priceless.

.

Hardly "priceless", it is going to take alot of effort/risk to try and get the site into a position where it would be profitable. I'd think they probably did attempt to sell the site to another player (just a guess). It doesn't matter how much has been spent building it up if the site can't make money.

 

[GF]

Hey, maybe we should all partner up and buy it...

 

[snoop]

Hey, maybe we should all partner up and buy it...

That kind of thing normally comes down to a problem of "too many cooks". It need decisive changes I would say, major cost cutting. I think it would suit a couple of people running it. If they could get it down to say one or two owners running it (no other staff) it would probably be sustainable. Probably not alot of profit to start with, but on the right track. I've never bought there so I don't know how the process works but I would think for a $28 sale where they make $2 in revenue, that kind of sale need to be 100% automated (probably hard to do) or taken care of directly between buyer and seller (ebay, forum style).

 

[wot]

it's said and done. Bido is over for good, as you put it.
It's a sad day for us.

Good luck guys.

Hopefully what you have learned can be turned in to something positive for yourselves or passed on to other entrepreneurs.

Our industry was, and still is, in desperate need of competition to Sedo.

 

[Archangel]

I'd hate to say that I foresaw this coming long ago. Why? Pretty much as your explanation said... like the old www.oneuglydomain.com thing, this was an idea that seemed good at a time but was bound to fail in the end.

The problem was basically the 1 domain a day model was not sustainable, and then when the floodgates opened for lower quality domains many users could not be bothered using it. If I wanted to weed through that much crap I would use eBay.

Brad

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

Maybe Namepros should make an offer.

Could be a winning combination.



*

 

[DNProperty.com]

Clearly buyers have not come back into the domain name market (particularly in the US).

 

[ezimedia]

HI

Sorry to see them go... I would have been happy to pay a listing fee for domains or a monthly membership fee..

Tom

 

[Jaco]

Clearly buyers have not come back into the domain name market (particularly in the US).

For garbage names, no.
The only reason a market ever existed for such names was because of 'domainia' circa 2004-2007/8ish where the rising tide raised the garbage right along with the boats and everything else... This caused a bunch of domaining monkeys to start to believe that garbage actually had intrinsic value and instead of learning and progressing, they based their entire outlook on an otherwise unsustainable, short-term mania that itself hardly even considered quality in the first place.

Right now, even names of genuine quality seem to be taking a shot (see: all recent premium auction results). The market for garbage names and 'hobbyist domainer' type names is absolutely toast and that's what BIDO chose to cater to.

 

[has2hands]

I want to offer my thanks and best of luck to Sarah, Jarred and support staff.

Their support and help before/during/after the auction process was phenomenal.

I, probably like everyone else here, watched their progress from the beginning to end. I was an active buyer and bidder in the early stages and looked at their daily emails CHOCKED full of names. Instead of thoroughly studying the daily list...I breezed thru it looking for some domain worthy of some money, attention and love....but I hardly found any.

I became conditioned, but not in positive way.

In the beginning, I enjoyed the initial comments from the domain pros and their estimates, all taken with a grain a salt, but still informative and helpful. They showed me different ways the domain could be monetized.

Then, things got kinda fuzzy for me....new things were introduced that I could care less about or fully understood. I just wanted to see quality names, one or two or even ten per day, and get in on the action..the juice.

I really didn't want to vote on domains...my vote came with my bid(s). Who had time to do that? It didn't help me. I know folks made money by picking or voting on domains but that isn't a sustainable business model. That never made economic sense to me....but I never saw the backend books...so maybe I am wrong on that point.

The initial model was higher quality domains that domainers wanted.....a few a day...low overhead for owner...and it was over in a few hours...simple.

But, just like anything, innovation comes into play...you start tweaking here and there to increase revenue...you live the life and you get blinders on and you march in a certain direction....usually due to need.

Again, best of luck to the Bido crew and remember, you guys made domaining history and lore and will be missed.

Paul Kapschock

 

[Sameh]

edit

 

[youdiezst]

RIP Bido. Goodluck Jarred!

 

[PremiumDomains101]

sad to hear, i was really starting to enjoy Bido!

 

[NetOctave]

I sincerely hope someone buy Bido and trim their software to just the basics... And put effort in developing something to filter off the junk names... And reduce the names to something around 10. This should atleast get in better inventory and more margins for them to become a hit...

 

[fm1234]

posted by Jaco:

The only reason a market ever existed for such names was because of 'domainia' circa 2004-2007/8ish where the rising tide raised the garbage right along with the boats and everything else... This caused a bunch of domaining monkeys to start to believe that garbage actually had intrinsic value and instead of learning and progressing, they based their entire outlook on an otherwise unsustainable, short-term mania that itself hardly even considered quality in the first place.

Worth highlighting and bumping. At some point in one's domaining career one has to stop using the voices in one's head as market indicators.


Frank